Generally in the inkjet printing industry, printing quality is determined by a number of factors, including establishment of a proper meniscus at the print head nozzle exit, providing clean print heads and ensuring the operability of the printer. To assist in maintaining the printer, the print heads often require priming, which serves to re-establish the proper menisci and provides for proper ink flow through the print head. Priming the print heads generally includes having the capping device brought into intimate contact with the printing head, thereby forming a sealed interior area. Subsequently a negative pressure may be applied to this interior space allowing for the forcible ejection of ink from the print head and priming the print head. However, the priming process is problematic in that, the ink lines are allowed to simply leak out into the general printer environment or into a waste container, however, when the printing system is not used for extended periods of time (e.g. several days to several months or longer) the nature of the inks may cause either partial or full blockages of the lines, thereby negatively impacting the priming function.
Thus, there is a need within the printing industry for a flushing system allowing for proper maintenance of printers. As a result, the embodiments of the present invention reduce the risk of capper device performance degradation over time, thus providing more consistent and robust printing performance.